Mine tax collects lot of heat but leaves electorate cold

Chief political correspondent

Wayne Swan's besieged Minerals Resource Rent Tax is more popular with the big miners, who have largely escaped liability, than it is with Australian voters.

Many it seems, agree with the Greens - it's a dud.

The latest The Age/Nielsen poll has revealed the underperforming tax, which has collected little money but a lot of political heat, has left voters decidedly cold.

Indeed fewer than one in four, according to the survey of 1400 respondents taken between last Thursday and Saturday, have bought the government's line that the tax is effective in ''spreading the benefits of the resources boom''.

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The poll shows a mere 23 per cent of voters believe the MRRT should be retained as it is.

Another 36 per cent believe it should be abolished and 37 per cent said it should be strengthened to raise more revenue.

The mining tax has emerged as one of the government's signature failures this year, after it was revealed it had clawed back a slim $126 million in its first six months of operation.

That was well short of the $2 billion a year projected by the government.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has defended the tax's structure but has also acknowledged it paid nothing in MRRT liability so far.

Last week in Parliament, the opposition claimed its revenue pool amounted to just $5.50 for each Australian citizen.

However, pollster John Stirton said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has promised to scrap the tax, should be careful how he reads the numbers.

''I think the fact that the government has announced the tax is raising far less than anticipated, suggests that there is something wrong with it, whether that's fair or not doesn't matter because the perception is, there is something wrong with the mining tax.

''But it was interesting that if you take the proportion that want to leave it as it is, or wants it to be amended so that it gets more revenue, that's a clear majority who would either keep it or amend it.''

Mr Stirton said this finding was ''broadly consistent with the fact that it had majority support when it was last put to voters, a year or so back''.

The government has struggled to explain its low returns, blaming external factors, from irresponsibility of state governments raising royalty fees to low iron-ore prices, and the high dollar.

But the Greens, and many within Labor, believe its failure stems from bungled negotiations between government and big miners in the aftermath of Labor's 2010 leadership coup.

On Sunday, Kevin Rudd took responsibility for the original version of the tax, which led to a brutal public relations war with the mining sector and a $22 million TV advertising campaign.

Julia Gillard has refused to consider any redesign but wants to push the states to limit their royalty increases.